Monthly Archives: July 2012

I’m so happy to have you here at my blog this week, Corrine. Please excuse the mess, and simply put your feet up and tell us a little about your favorite parts…of your books that is. lol

Thank you for having me here today, Lynn! I’m looking forward to sharing some of my favourite moments from a couple of my books.

There are a lot of moments in Caress of Fur that I enjoyed writing. Mai spends so much of her energy battling fear and panic attacks, I couldn’t’ wait for her to have a bit of fun in her life. Sometimes the best “light bulb” moments happen during the silliest moments. For Mai she has no idea that the man she’s with at a petting zoo is a shapeshifter.

They strolled through High Park, stopping at the petting zoo the park sponsored. He paid for some feed, and the two of them faced the ravages of crazed goats to feed them. Mai couldn’t remember a time she laughed so much.

That funniest part was the goats kept running away from him and would surround her. She tried to hand him the food, but they scattered no matter what they did. “What’s your cologne, Eau de Predator?” Mai teased him as the goats stampeded away from him for the fourth time. The look of surprise on his face made her laugh even harder.

“All right that’s enough.”

Mai’s world literally turned upside down when he bent down and scooped her up over his shoulder as if she didn’t weigh a thing.

“Ah!” She laughed and smacked him on the lower back. “Put me down, you Neanderthal.” She braced her hands on his back and tried to wriggle free, but he clamped a strong arm around her legs. “You might be able to intimidate the poor, helpless goats, but you don’t scare me.” That realization stuck in her head for a moment, making her heart skip a beat. I’m not afraid of him. She waved to the petting zoo attendant who opened the gate and let them out…

Steam Powered Passion was my first foray into the world of Steampunk. I’ve always loved historical romance and in this genre I could also incorporate all sorts of fun things like flying ships and pirates. In this book, Tori has been abducted from her ship and is about to find out that the man she loved and believed dead, is very much alive. Her reaction is not what I or Sean expected proof that I don’t have as much control over my characters as I like to believe. J

“Hello, Tori.”

Sean expected his presence would be a bit of a shock to her. What he didn’t expect was for her to spin around and point a gun at his head. Feeling Mal’s body tense behind him, he reached back with his good hand and placed it on his lover’s thigh, hoping that Mal would

understand the message and not charge her. Mal tended to be overprotective at times, and Tori wouldn’t really shoot him. I hope.

“Where the hell did she get a gun?”

“That particular one?” Sean recognized the small, modified derringer. He spent weeks working on it so it would fit her hand and be easily hidden. “I believe I gave it to her for her sixteenth birthday.”

At the time, she was thrilled with the gift and insisted that he teach her how to use it. He taught her a lot over the years, almost as much as she taught him. But then, that was a long time ago.

“My god, Sean! What are you doing here? You’re dead.”

“No, I can assure you, I’m very much alive, and I work on this ship. Tori, I can’t believe it’s really you after all these years.” He stepped forward, and she lowered the gun a couple feet down, pointing it directly at his groin. He much preferred the idea of a head shot.

“Don’t think the history between us will prevent me from squeezing the trigger.”

This is an unedited blurb from my next book Surrounded by Fur. (It will be available from Siren Publishing on Aug 17th.) River Reynard and Lars are best friends and snip at each other like siblings and have made me laugh on more than on occasion while working on this story. When River starts to fall in love with Hugh, Boyd and Gavin McNamara, Lars takes every oppourtunity to tease her about it.

Lars stood there with a large fish in either hand looking at her like she was insane. “I called your name four times and you didn’t even blink. I thought you left and here you are staring at the door. If you wanted to leave with Gavin, I would’ve understood.”

“Are you nuts? No way. Bears are trouble, like worse than plundering Viking trouble.”

“Hey, we pillaged not plundered.” Lars mock glared at her and held up the fresh fishes. “Are you going to help me with these?”

River blinked at the massive lake trout. “Did you catch them?”

“Yup, held my hands out over the water and they jumped right in.” Lars rolled his eyes and headed out of the shop and into the back where his apartment was.

“Smart-ass.” River followed but glanced over her shoulder at the door one more time. Bears are dangerous. Something she was going to have to remind herself of a lot.

Thanks for stopping by and joining in one our fun. Be sure to visit the other stops on our blog tour! Each of us is offering up our favourite written moments in our books.

Don’t forget to make a comment at the bottom to be entered to win a book for this week’s draw and be entered for the grand prize, a $50 gift certificate for Amazon.

Hi Regina. It’s so nice of you to stop by my blog and introduce yourself to my readers. If you could organize a dinner party, which fictional characters (choose some from your own books too) would you invite and what would you cook?

It is a pleasure to be on your blog this week, Lynn! Such a great topic too. Very thought-provoking.

“If I could organize a dinner party, which fictional characters would I invite and what would I cook?”

Well, I am the sort who enjoys rather large dinner parties, say about 12 guests or so. But to be sure it’s not too large in this case I would choose six guests.

First I would invite Robinson Crusoe, an incredible individual with great instincts. It might be nice for him to mingle a bit. Next I would snatch the Count of Monte Cristo and have him relate how he pulled off that escape! Also fabulous would be Moll Flanders, who has so many experiences and always has something interesting to say. The next on my list would be the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Lisbeth Salander. Huck Finn, for sure to comment on what’s happening to America today. In this midst of these famous characters, I would add in Haley Hawthorne, the heroine from my contemporary Inspirational romance, “In Good Faith”.

Each of these characters has journeyed on a path which has required them in some way to address the issue of faith in their lives and their worlds. So this might prove to be an interesting group!

For our menu, I would make them a great big, old-fashioned turkey dinner with all the fixings just like we have here in New England every Thanksgiving. It is the ultimate comfort food, very nourishing and has a lot of meaning as well. Perhaps the guests will share something they are thankful for in their lives as we chat, we shall see!

Haley Hawthorne is a successful Art Director at a high-powered greeting card company in Manhattan. Designer clothes and expensive material luxuries are what she uses to try and fill the emptiness inside — but it wasn’t always that way for her.

Orphaned at a young age, Haley was raised in rural Dunbar Falls by her Uncle Nelson amid pasture lands and a clear sense of the things that matter most in life, including her joyful relationship with God.

One day Aaron Carrier, her old friend from Dunbar Falls pays her a surprise visit to her office at Sterling Greeting Cards with devastating news about Uncle Nelson. When she returns home to Dunbar Falls, Haley is faced with a professional decision upon inheriting Uncle Nelson’s air-conditioning company. More than that, she faces a crossroads in her heart. It is a crisis of faith, of loyalty and of love.

What does God want her to do? Will she be able to return home to Dunbar Falls and all that it has meant for her? And will Aaron Carrier be more than a friend?

There will be a grand prize of a $50 Amazon gift certificate awarded at the end of the tour. Enjoy the blogs and leave comments for the opportunity to be the grand prize winner. One entry ticket per comment!

Excerpt: “In Good Faith”

“Ms. Hawthorne, could you look at these proofs?”

“Do you have a minute to go over this copy together, Ms. Hawthorne?”

“A call for you from Grace on line three, Ms. Hawthorne!”

Haley Hawthorne tossed her long red curls over her shoulder as she swept through the Creative Area of Sterling Greeting Cards. She carried a designer bag in one hand and a steaming latté in the other.

As Senior Art Director for the largest greeting card company in the world, these early morning entrances refreshed her enough to get through the day ahead. They were her redemption. But I can remember a time when I didn’t feel like that, and it wasn’t so very long ago.

A hush fell over the flock of artists and interns following behind her as she passed. With a frown she accepted a stack of messages from the leathery, outstretched hands of her receptionist Bernice, a fixture at Sterling’s for over forty years.

“I’m already carrying too much, Bernice,” she murmured.

“There, there.” With a motherly pat, Bernice tucked the papers under Haley’s arm. “Toting a heavy load can weigh you down, Haley. Maybe it’s time to think about what you really need to carry and what you can let go.” She gave Haley a look.

“Maybe you’re right, Bernice.” As if I haven’t already tried! That’s what was keeping her awake most nights. The old Haley used to travel light and breezy, her heart and soul as free as a bird. But lately she felt heavy in her heart and she couldn’t put her finger on why. How had things changed so much?

Ignoring the chirp of her cell phone, Haley walked down the corridor to her office, glancing at the framed collections of award-winning cards on the walls and the shelves crowded with shining trophies she’d won over the years. When would she get a chance to start her own company?

The fact that all her talent was padding someone else’s profit column wasn’t the only thing bothering her these days. There was something else that had been nagging at her for some time now, an emptiness she couldn’t fill with work…or with her boyfriend, Derek, either. All she knew was that she had to get through each day.

Her young assistant, Suzie, unlatched the chrome double doors to her office for her and Haley flashed the smile that had been opening doors for her all her life.

She called over her shoulder, “I’ll get to all of you in a minute.” The entourage scattered, leaving her and Suzie in the peaceful calm of her office.

And then she saw him.

“Aaron Carrier! I can’t believe it! What are you doing here?”

She put down her bag and her coffee and reached her hands out to him after smoothing her lemon yellow designer suit.

She gave him a warm hug, then turned to her assistant.”I’ve known this guy since we were kids. He and his two brothers were like triplets, they were so alike. I’ll never forget when he insisted we start calling him Carrier, to be different from his brothers Adam and Austin. Boy, were they mad…”

With his broad, six-foot frame blocking the Manhattan skyline in the window behind him, Haley noticed how his glinting azure eyes and thick hair had grown more imposing in the ten years that had passed since she had last seen him.

He jammed his fists deep into the pockets of his jeans. “Hey. We have to talk, Haley. It’s about Nelson.”

Her heartbeat quickened. “You’ve come all the way here from Dunbar Falls to tell me something about Uncle Nelson?” She glanced at Suzie, then back at him. “It must be bad news.”

“I’ll have Bernice hold all of your calls.” Suzie hustled off in a cloud of expensive perfume, latching the door behind her with a solid ‘click’.

“Tell me what’s wrong, Carrier. Is it bad?”

“Yeah. The worst.”

“He’s -”

Carrier nodded. “Last night.” His piercing blue eyes, steely as two sapphires, searched her face. But they didn’t stop there; they burned into her soul.

My guest this week is author Regan Taylor. With the heatwave going on, I thought I’d ask her what she’s up to. Mostly, I wanted to know what a popular writer is reading. Say that five times fast. So Regan, what books are you bringing with you to the beach this summer and why?

Growing up summertime was my favorite time of year in part because school was out but more so summer reading. Without homework there was more time to read.

I’ve always been pretty introverted. People are always surprised when they hear that, but I am. It’s a struggle to talk to people and groups are major difficult times for me. As a child and young adult my happiest time were sitting in my room reading a book, any book. I poured through my father’s collection of world’s greatest literature and devoured Alexandre Dumas and the complete Charles Dickens. Reading opened up new worlds, new ideas and took me places I’d otherwise never get to go. Despite my mother’s penchant for trying to find friends for me (I really did have some I found on my own that I liked doing things with) one thing she did do that I enjoyed was every Wednesday night we went down to the library. I think it was because it was open late on Wednesday but I don’t remember anymore. All I know is Wednesday night was library night. Ironically now, as an adult, I generally find my way over to the San Francisco main library on Wednesday lunch hours. I could have worse habits, you know? Summer time meant more time to read.

Nowadays I have an hour or so commute each way to work which means at least 2 hours a day to engage in my favorite solitary pastime—reading. I average 3-4 books a week unless I’m digging into a long novel like Helen Hooven Santmyer’s AND THE LADIES OF THE CLUB at about 1,000 pages (Anyone else remember that book?) or one of W.E.B. Griffin’s stories. Lately I’ve become a bit of a cozy mystery addict and to feed that I’ve been finding some wonderful authors like Penny Warner and Victoria Laurie. Victoria Laurie’s Psychic Eye series is a major favorite. I’m dreading finishing the last in the series without the next one waiting for me. I have to wait till September for Penny Warner’s next Party Planning mystery, HOW TO DINE ON KILLER WINE, but I do have my next few Victoria Laurie’s Psychic Eye mysteries lined up and ready to read including her Ghost Hunter series (she has such a great writing voice).

I also picked up one of Katherine Hall Page’s mysteries, BODY IN THE BELFRY and BODY IN THE KELP because her premise intrigues me.

In preparation of Pamela Clare’s DEFIANT I’m rereading the first two in her MacKinnon’s Rangers series, SURRENDER and UNTAMED. While I enjoy her contemporary romantic suspense (I-Team series), I REALLY like her historicals. A couple of years ago I started to reread all my Rosemary Rogers’ books and on tap for this summer are MIDNIGHT LADY and ALL I DESIRE.

People who know me well know I’m not a fan of vampires and werewolves but I have gotten hooked on Lynsay Sands’ Argeneau series and plan to continue reading my way through them. (If you haven’t tried them, they are a hoot.)

Of course I need to write—writing becomes a part of you that you just can’t put aside. I will be finishing SAPPHIRE and anticipating the release of DEVIL’S DETAILS.

Thank you so much, Regan. I loved getting to know you a little better. As for the rest of you, let us know what you’re reading and why. We’d LOVE to hear from you. You’ll also be entered into our contest for our weekly prize and also it will give you a chance to win our grand prize of a $50.00 gift card to Amazon. Have a wonderful summer everyone and keep on reading!